Capcom have today announced that Resident Evil 4 - originally touted as being exclusive to Gamecube - will be released for PS2 in Japan, the US and Europe at the end of 2005. The Cube version of the game will debut in Japan in January, with the PAL version to follow in the spring.

While Capcom have yet to specify if the PS2 incarnation will differ in any way to the Cube original, a Japlish press release states, "We will strive for developing Resident Evil 4 to feature of each characteristic of the console platforms". Make of that what you will.

Resident Evil first made its way on to Gamecube following a curious September 2001 press conference in which the game's publishers and developers Capcom announced that the series would be a Nintendo exclusive from that point onwards.

Ports of Resident Evils 1-3 quickly followed, as did a Cube version of Code: Veronica and prequel Resi 0. But only months after the initial press conference, clearly after the revenue associated with releasing games on the huge-selling Sony console, Capcom revealed that a new online Resi title, Outbreak, would be a PS2-exclusive.

Resident Evil 4 will be released for Gamecube in the spring and for PS2 at the end of 2005